Help

No account yet?
Registering is free, easy, and private.
Discuss in the forum, contribute to the Encyclopedia, build your own MyAnime lists, and more.

The Click

March 7th - March 16th

by Brian Hanson, Mar 10th 2007

Sweet holy symbolism and viscously vibrating things, it's The Click! It (and by association, myself) is back to rip open your tender brain and shove a whole seven days' worth of anime-on-TV goodness into the newly-created fleshy cavity. As it is often worth noting, however, that all dates and times are tentative, and that everything listed applies to the Eastern time zone. Even the Canadian ones.

I believe I've mentioned before my reasoning for ignoring smaller channels and networks that significantly feature anime; their relatively tiny viewer base for one, and the plain-sighted obviousness of anime being on an "Anime Network" for two. I do not, however, want anybody to think that I'm giving any of these networks the so-called short shrift: after all, if time permitted, I would honestly scour the globe for every last scrap of anime appearing on TV anywhere outside of its native land. I bring this up because recently I was put back in touch with the good folks at ImaginAsian TV, whom I have met before and have always been super nice people. I was handed a schedule of their anime programming for the coming month, and to my surprise it's quite impressive! Any fears I had of a channel teeming with terrible Indonesian Pokémon ripoffs were allayed by a robust schedule featuring the likes of the stunningly gorgeous Gankutsuou and the eerily philosophical Kino's Journey. So for those lucky few with the option of having ImaginAsian TV beamed into their homes, it receives my highest recommendation: Like Way, Totally.

Taking the reins from the recently finished Trinity Blood, Adult Swim this week rolls out their not-so-mysterious "new anime." Blood+ is a great looking and fun series, which might sound like I'm damning it with faint praise, which is sort of true: if only Production I.G used the fuller, more dynamic designs from the 50-minute Blood "film" instead of the admittedly sharp but creatively drab art that wound up in the series! Oh, what could have been, indeed.

Speaking of sharp but creatively drab, here's a new episode of "dot hack"! Wherein the protagonist confronts his inner demons in his unending quest for power, tertiary characters espouse exposition, and other such animated ways to utilize 22 minutes.

This week on Basilisk, a recap episode! Which is the television equivalent to those days before the final exam where the instructor hastily and haphazardly reviews in minute detail all the so-called "important" material to an audience of bored students.

Ichigo, our ever-intrepid Main Character, fully masters the ability to harness and materialize his ethereal "spirit energy," and later learns the all-too-tragic cause of Ganju's immense disdain of Soul Reapers.

That title sounds it was one of the rejected subtitles for the successful "Borat: Cultural Learnings of Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." Hopefully Bo-Bobo will abstain from said film's fascination with frequent and horrifying man-nudity.

The Bebop crew typically abstain from two-part outings, which means for you Canadians that this is a very special episode that you should all watch. Also, in case you haven't already heard, Cowboy Bebop is a very, very good series. It involves gregarious hints of Spike's tragic backstory, features one of the series' benchmark action set pieces, and is just all around cool.

Is that a Parappa the Rapper reference I detect? No matter; Eureka 7 soldiers on to its stentorian conclusion as Holland risks life and limb to pilot his new LFO, and Anemone's super-secret plot-based revelation is discussed.

This week on Eureka 7 IN CANADA: Holland's plans to reunite the pining Eureka with her beau Renton are stifled somewhat by the military presence, and things get especially crazy when a revenge-seeking Ray arrives.

Gundam Seed Destiny places its big, metallic boot all up in YTV's grill, what with it's new main character, the orphaned Shinn, and tons of new mechs with which to throw into various scenes of robot violence! Also, Cagalli and Athrun, stalwarts of the original Gundam Seed series, score some face time.

As Gunslinger Girl nears the end of its brief 13-episode life span, certain questions are raised, answered, and parlayed into more questions and answers and parlay-ing. Such as, who murdered the duo of Elsa and Lauro, what are the consequences, and is it possible for this series to have an even more muted, gray-shaded hue on every scene?

If I had but fourteen words to describe my feelings on this week's offering of GUNxSWORD premieres, it would be this: "Swift Brownie" is my new stage name/ jocular porn nickname/ World of Warcraft Guild.

I imagine that given five minutes of digging around in my dad's toolshed, some hot glue, and acrylic paint, I could arrange my very own "Battle Shovel." Which means I can hastily put together my own "cosplay" that the kids are always talking about! Look out, Anime Expo Masquerade! Oh, and this episode of MAR involves a character named Jack, his battle shovel, and how he uses it to stand up for himself and beat bullies and save his mother's farm.

With Gaara's transformation complete, the only chance our spiky-haired ninja moppet has of defeating the otherworldly misanthrope is to call upon the power of Gamabunta the Toad, using his Summoning Jutsu. If I had a joke prepared, it would go here.

This week on Naruto IN CANADA, the battle between the Third Hokage and Orochimaru reaches its zenith, as the tenuous past connecting the two together is slyly introduced to the puzzled but highly intrigued viewer.

Tennis pro-in-the-making Ryoma totally disses on an upperclassman in a typical middle school fashion; rather than settling their differences using fisticuffsmanship, the two duke it out on the tennis court. Unfortunately for Ryoma, all the "Seigaku Regulars" are watching the game, and he's playing with a broken racket. Such uneven odds, of course, make for compelling viewing. Which this very well may be.

Hunter and Shadow, which totally sound like covert CIA operatives' code-names if this weren't a simplistic Saturday Morning kids' show, have to stop their friend Igneous from challenging an old friend to a round of mortal combat. That's combat with a "c."

Zatch, Kiyo, and a veritable gang of secondary characters continue their assault against the so-called "Millennium Mamodo" in order to preserve freedom and righteousness and crossing the street while looking both ways, and candy!

If I had to compare these four Encore Action features to pies, it would be as such: Appleseed would be a scrumptious strawberry tart, which would be tasty but in such small portions you would bemoan the price: The Weathering Continent would be a frozen Marie Calender's pie bought at the supermarket, which always end up slightly uncooked no matter how many eons they stay in the oven: Jin-Roh would be a banana cream pie, so filled with rich deliciousness you can't wait to start eating it but is so filling you're unable to properly finish it: while Gundress would be a pot pie, in the sense that it's scarcely a pie at all.

Now that The Click is finished, I can continue my typical weekend ritual of binge drinking and pagan Street Fighter II rituals. Below this line are repeats of shows, some of which are good and totally worth watching, maybe even more than once! I'll be back next week to talk some more about anime on TV, and the impending heat-death of the universe.

It's time to fly back an entire decade to the anime theme songs of yesteryear! What were the coolest openings of 2004?― George Bush Jr. was re-elected, World of Warcraft was launched, but most importantly, a little show called Beet the Vandel Buster stole the hearts of otaku everywhere. The year was 2004, and I'm sure I remember it perfectly. Wait, maybe Beet wasn't the big anime hit of that year. ...

An otaku gets more than he bargained for while applying for his dream job in this 2013 comedy; Theron Martin investigates.― Clever, witty writing and thoughtful execution can turn even a silly concept into something good, and that is exactly what happens with this 12 episode series from the Fall 2013 season. In fact, it turns out so much better than originally expected that its streaming run was my ...

This week's new releases! Plus, three new reviews, including the tasty Yakitate!! Japan, Place to Place, and the third season of The World God Only Knows.― We've got three reviews for you this week. I sank my teeth into the delectable Yakitate!! Japan, while Paul tackled Place to Place and the third season of The World God Only Knows. Jump to this week's reviews: Place to Place Complete Collection ...

Humanity's future hangs in the balance as the powerful and voluptuous Pandora of Chevalier do battle with Earth's ultimate threat. Now they are joined by a new kind of Pandora.― IMG freezing-vibration-logo-b.jpg Humanity's future hangs in the balance as the powerful and voluptuous Pandora of Chevalier do battle with Earth's ultimate threat: the alien invaders known as Nova. Backed by their loyal ma...

The second part of the first season of Sailor Moon is out, but did they manage to fix all those video problems?― Well, they tried. It is apparent that the video quality has risen from the first disastrous release of Sailor Moon put out by Viz, and the untrained eye will mostly notice that in the Blu-Ray images are a bit clearer and the ghosting is less noticeable with the exceptions of the second an...

Nya-tan will enter the Divine Tournament and do what no Eto-musume has done. She will try to win it all!!!― Etotama (Chinese Zodiac Souls) Visit the Official Site › Story Characters Trailer Cast & Staff Gallery Broadcast Begins April 2015 (JST) Key Staff Director: Fumitoshi Oizaki (Romeo X Juliet, Place to Place) Series Composition: Deko Akao (Arakawa Under the Bridge, BlazBlue Alter Memory) Introd...

Food Wars! continues being chock-a-block with cliffhangers and competitions guaranteed to make you reluctant to put the book down once you've started reading.― KFC and IHOP are not going to cut it when you've finished reading this volume of Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma. From breakfasts to tempt even the least enthusiastic morning eater to fried chicken that will make you wish you could pull it out o...

Kumiko Oumae is still on the fence about joining her high school wind ensemble. What will it take to make that sound leap of faith?― Sound! Euphonium (Hibike! Euphonium) Visit the Official Site › Story Characters Trailer Cast & Staff Gallery Broadcast Begins April 2015 (JST) Key Staff Director: Tatsuya Ishihara (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Air, Nichijou-My Ordinary Life ) ) Series Compositio...

First there were catgirls, then maids, then robot girls; presently, we live in the age of the monster girl. Here are seven shining examples of the genre.― Supernatural romantic comedies have a strong, dedicated fanbase among both male and female readers. Commentary on its quality aside, Twilight was immensely popular and shone a light on a new sub-section of young adult novels. Vampire stories, inc...

Anime scholars extraordinaire Helen McCarthy and Jonathan Clements drop by the ANNCast clubhouse to discuss their new book, the monolithic behemoth known as The Anime Encyclopedia: Third Revised Edition.― ANNCast Episode 221: Encyclopedia Brits-Ani-ca Get the Flash Player to see this player. Anime scholars extraordinaire Helen McCarthy and Jonathan Clements drop by the ANNCast clubhouse to discuss ...